Monday, December 31, 2012

That special time of year has come and gone. We all put so much time and thought into the holiday season and it's gone in a blink of an eye. Spending time with family and friends is the most important part of the season.

We kicked off the holiday weekend with the Reinhart Christmas at our house! Nana and Papaw, Aunt Bridget, Uncle Josh, Uncle Scott, Whitney, Quinten, and Livi came to help celebrate with us! We had a full house and loved it!

Later that evening, the Bruce family came over to enjoy some Christmas cheer. The kiddos exchanged their gifts with each other and enjoyed running around and playing while the adults were able to kick back, relax and enjoy some adult beverages! ;)

These four kids are not just cousins, but they're all best buds. I don't know about Betsy and Charlie, but if a couple weeks go by and Laney and Max haven't seen Charlo and Bets, they're asking where they are and what they're doing. And honestly, it's not just the kids Laney and Max look forward to seeing....they love their Tiff and John too!

Sunday, December 23 we were able to spend the evening with Pa and Nana Laura for Christmas. It was nice this year to actually celebrate with them BEFORE Christmas and not 2 weeks into January! I am hoping we can continue that every year! We went to their house this year and had a great time visiting, opening gifts, and running around with the kids!

Laney and Max were such good kids this year that Louie (our elf) got them a gift on Christmas Eve morning. Christmas Eve is his last night with us every year. We always miss him when he goes back to the North Pole! The kids' gifts were Elf on the Shelf pjs and a Scooby Doo Christmas DVD. I am hoping this is a tradition that Louie will leave PJs and a Christmas DVD every year on Christmas Eve morning....we will see!

The tradition continued at Aunt Bea's house on Christmas Eve. We all gathered there to spend time together as a family. We ate, opened gifts, and enjoyed each other's company. This is one of my favorite days of the year. We missed not having Matt, Malinda, Lauren, Luke, and Emma with us. Although they weren't physically with us, they were in our hearts.

Grandma Dee got an iPad this year and was very surprised! She's already set up her Facebook account and is looking forward to connecting with family and friends!

The kids were all smiles on Christmas Eve. The day was perfect!

Then came evening time to head to our next family tradition....go to our candlelight service at church. Again, it is my favorite church service. The sanctuary is so pretty all decorated for the season.

The congregation is all happy and smiling. And the music is so beautiful as we sing "Silent Night" and the lights all turn off. The beauty of our church is lit up by candles. I love it.

We ended the evening at Grandma Reinhart's house celebrating with Benji's family. The kids loved seeing their cousins. They got their last wind in before we headed home to sprinkle some reindeer food on the yard and set cookies out for Santa and elf donuts out for Louie and his friends.

Christmas morning....wow is all I can say. These kids were loving everything about the morning!

Grammy and Pappy came over, as usual, to watch the kids open their gifts. We had a delicious breakfast made my yours truly and some delicious strawberry mimosas. Thank you Pinterest!

Santa brought both kids this year a Leap Pad 2 and a game! They are enjoying learning what all their Leap Pad can do!

Christmas morning with my family. You can't ask for a better gift!

Speaking of great gifts....Benji scored a new pair of Oakley shades!

and he wasn't the only one! Looks like Mommy has a new pair to wear running! Yeah for us!!

These 2 little critters weren't left out either, don't worry! Their stockings were overflowing with goodies!

Christmas night was a fun one, as usual. We spent the evening at Grammy and Pappy's house.

The new swing will definitely be the place to be! It even has some LED lights inside to lighten it up in the evenings!

These 2 kids are loved by so many!

We really can't get enough of them!

We toasted to many more Merry Christmases in the future!

We played until the night came to an end....

and when it did, we snuggled up, got nice and cozy together and thanked God for another wonderful year!

Tuesday, December 11, 2012

Wow...how fast the month of November went! I noticed the last post was about Halloween....seems I skipped Thanksgiving. No, I'm not one of those that puts up decorations right after Halloween. I do celebrate Thanksgiving! We had a great Thanksgiving holiday! My brother and Malinda came to visit this year, which was nice. Usually, we don't see them in November, but they're traveling to visit Malinda's family for Christmas this year. Thanksgiving was very nice...spent time visiting with family, just how the holiday is supposed to be! Unfortunately, I did not take ANY pictures! I know, crazy...I had my camera, but did not even get it out!

We had the wonderful, Jamie Marshall, take the kids pictures this year for our Christmas card. As usual, she did an amazing job! It was a fast, mini session with her, but she managed to capture a few cute pics of the kids to use for our cards this year!

For those family members who read this and would like pictures of any of these, just email or text me. I bought the rights to the pictures so we could do what we want with them! :)

We hope everyone is able to enjoy these last TWO weeks of the holiday rush! It really is sad how much we prepare for Christmas and it goes by so fast. This year, I plan to treasure the special moments with the kids and not get stressed about what to make, what to buy, and when to get home!

The magic in their eyes is priceless! It's something we need to hold on to!

Thursday, November 1, 2012

Halloween has always been one of my favorite holidays! The month of October in Indiana is beautiful, the holiday usually still is decent weather, the kids get to dress up and act silly, and there is candy EVERYWHERE! And for those of you who know me well, know I LOVE candy!! Chocolate....eh, it's OK. But candy??? Skittles, Starburst, Twizzlers, Sour Patch Kids....love 'em all!

We had a fun filled day....we started the day out with Laney's school Halloween Party!

Come dressed up as an animal on Noah's Ark....Scooby was there, right! ;)

This little guy couldn't get enough candy and snacks while we were out trick or treating! Every house we went to, he wanted to open something and eat it!

We ventured out to Pa's house to visit him! Some of Pa's animals were a little scared of Scooby and Mickey!

I hate that I didn't get a good smiling picture of the four kiddos, but what can I say?? Max had a meltdown do to "falling" off the step...AKA being pushed by his sister. She was happy Charlo was with her, so it didn't bother her any...

and Miss Betsy has the pose down to a T. Hand on the hip, knee popped out = diva

Sunday, October 28, 2012

We have many traditions that we do during the fall months....I've already posted about AppleWorks, so you've seen the pictures of that! We've been to ZooBoo (pics to be posted at the costume reveal post!), and here are a few others! We've added a NEW tradition....making applesauce from the apples we get from AppleWorks! The kids loved helping me cut the apples and then tasting the applesauce that night! YUM YUM YUM! And, I must say, the house smelt A-MAZING!

I worked on peeling and cutting the apples while the kids diced them in smaller pieces, using a plastic knife, of course!!

I had a hard time keeping Max's little hands out of his mouth with the apples. All that boy wanted to do was eat them!

The next fun fall activity was pumpkin painting! We were lucky enough to have an 80 degree day last week, so we took advantage of the pretty weather and headed outside for painting! It made clean up much easier!!

They painted....

and concentrated....

and were just plain silly!

But they enjoyed getting it all over themselves. And Mom didn't mind either!

A little paint doesn't hurt ya!

The last fall activity we've done is carving pumpkins with Lauren, Luke, and Mamaw Dee

The kids got to wear their costumes down to the lake to show Mamaw Dee, Papaw Joe, Lauren, and Luke their costumes....everyone loved seeing them dressed up. Laney only had her costume off during these pictures. The rest of the time, she wore it! She loves it!

Miss Laney...

Mr Max...

About Me

First and foremost, I absolutely love being a wife and mother! After dating for several years (6 to be exact), Benji and I finally married on November 15, 2003. We enjoyed married life for a few years and finally decided to start a family of our own, besides the two dogs that were our "kids" then. We were blessed with our Miss Laney DeeAnn on February 19, 2008. She is a burst of sunshine to us! We also added Max Charles to our family April 10, 2010. The time I spend cuddling him is treasured always! I love our family!